Zorua Trainer
by FriTik
Summary: The world of Pokémon! Where adventures run wild and dreams come true! Who says a Pokémon trainer needs to be human? Tricky fox or not, one way or another, Ash is going to be the greatest master of them all!
1. Chapter 1

**Ash being a Zorua has been done before. Not too many times and I'm not sure whether I came up with the idea first and went looking or if I found one and it inspired me originally.**

 **Wherever I first got the idea, it doesn't matter too much. I decided to take elements from multiple sources to create this so if something doesn't line up with the anime, I probably meant for it to be that way. Like naming your Pokémon, because honestly that make a lot more sense than just calling your Pokémon the name of it's species.**

 **Also, yes I know there is a story called "Master, Pokémon?" which has a similar premise but I'm taking this in my own direction. I did get the inspiration to finally write this from finding that story though.**

* * *

 _Pallet Town…_

Delia looked at the little Pokémon she had just exchanged for with an old friend from Unova. Truth was she had stopped traveling for her Pokémon journey a few years ago so most of her Pokémon were starting to get a bit of cabin fever. So it hadn't taken too much prodding for her friend in Unova to convince her to let Blastoise (or as she had always called him, Shelldon) stretch his limbs and travel again for awhile.

But a trade of course required a Pokémon in return so her friend had sent her a Pokémon he had caught rather recently but hadn't been able to train properly yet. From what he had explained to her during the call the Pokémon he had sent her was actually pretty young and he had been concerned to find it so far from its natural habitat, especially without a trainer. Naturally he had thrown a poke ball at it and caught it.

Admittedly that was not the choice Delia herself would have gone with but it seemed to have worked well enough considering the Pokémon she had just traded for was running around trying to investigate everything around him.

Delia sighed and pulled out her old Pokedex, hopefully it would be able to identify him, really she should have asked her Unova bound friend more about the Pokémon he was sending her.

The dex lit up and a picture appeared that matched the Pokémon currently exploring his new home. " **Zorua."** The familiar digital voice spoke up. **"The tricky fox Pokémon. Zorua hides its true form by changing shape into people and Pokémon, and loves to surprise people."**

Delia looked up from the Pokedex entry and compared the image to the Pokémon that had finally seemed to notice her and was now staring at her intently. So he could change shape like a ditto or something? She should probably ask the professor about it the next time she saw him but she needed to get her new companion settled in first.

"I guess I'm going to need a name for you, huh?" Delia asked the Zorua rhetorically. The fox-like Pokémon made snickering noise and seemed to grin. Well based on the laugh alone she could call him Joker or something.

Then again while hearing a Pokémon snicker like that was rather unusual he didn't really look like a "Joker", besides she could do better with names. She wasn't ten years old anymore, thinking of pun names for Squirtles. Personally she thought Shelldon had always had a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of it.

She took a good look at the little Zorua who seemed like he was starting to get a bit bored of her and had begun sniffing at the carpeted floor. Likely because he was used to walking around on either pavement or grass. His fur was a soot like gray and mixed with bits of red it reminded her a bit of cinders and ash.

Well naming him Cinder could work but it sounded more like something you would name a ground or fighting type Pokémon. Then again Ash made you think of fire typically, but he certainly met the bill when she personally thought of ashes.

"How's the name Ash sound?" She asked the Zorua, thankfully regaining his attention. The small dark furred fox looked confused but seemed agreeable to the name.

Now that she had a name for Ash, she needed to figure out what kind of food he ate. He wasn't from Kanto after all, so it might be hard to find one that suited a Pokémon from Unova. Once again she was probably going to have to speak to "Professor Pokémon" himself, Samuel Oak. It was unlikely that he would mind though, he loved learning about Pokémon after all. Especially rare and unusual ones, and one from Unova would likely qualify in that regard.

Still, she was a bit concerned about the whole changing shape thing the Pokedex mentioned, it would probably be fine though.

* * *

 _Four years later…_

"Ash!" Delia called looking around the tricky fox Pokémon. He had certainly become bolder and wily as he grew, thankfully he had reached full size and wouldn't be getting bigger any time soon, at least until he evolved.

Unfortunately for her, his ability to change shape was some sort of illusionary ability and it made finding him when he went off somewhere a pain in the neck. Not that she was bitter or anything, she had run into problems while raising all her Pokémon, and Ash wasn't causing any trouble really, he was just a bit… adventurous.

So far he had only been able to make himself look like Pokémon he had seen before, and normally he had trouble remembering to compensate his tail into the change, making him somewhat easier for her to locate. That is if she could figure out where to look for him first. On the bright side he knew not to run off too far so it shouldn't be too hard.

While his trainer searched for him, Ash was experimenting with his illusion ability, in the past he had only been successful in making himself look like other Pokémon, but he had been working up to his ultimate skill! The ability to make himself look like a human!

Truth be told, his desire to do this had been inspired by his trainer who he honestly thought the world of. He had known her for as long a she could remember and he couldn't even remember what life had been like before knowing her. If he was able to pretend to be human then she wouldn't have to put him in his pokeball anymore. They may comfortable but they were a bit short on open space for his taste.

That was the only problem he had really, the fact he wasn't able to get out too much, not that he blamed Delia, she just didn't travel much anymore. Her adventuring days were behind her. But that didn't mean anything about his adventuring days! They hadn't even started yet!

That was another reason why he wanted to be able to change his shape to a human, if he could do that then he would be able to travel around without being worried about people targeting him because they thought they could catch him or something!

He looked at the reflection of himself in the water. His own furry features stared back at him. He concentrated and leaped into the air a bit to give himself some growth room. He applied his allusion and landed back on the ground…

… and promptly fell over.

He growled in frustration. How did humans walk around like this all the time!? There was no balance while standing on two feet!

Not one to just roll over and give up, he pushed himself back up, carefully holding his arms out to try and keep balance in the awkward standing position. He grinned for a moment but it quickly faded as he began tipping over again.

Ash yelped as he landed in the water this time, the shock of cold liquid caused him to lose focus on his appearance and revert back into his original shape. Fortunately for him, the water wasn't too deep so he was able to just push himself back out again. Although now his fur was soaked and weighed him down significantly making him sigh. He apparently needed way more practice before he would properly utilize his illusion.

He trotted out of the water and shook himself out as best he could on dry land. He was still significantly wet but at least his fur was no longer dragging him down. Ash didn't think about having fur all that much, it was part of him after all, but he would admit he was a bit envious that humans didn't have to worry about it when getting wet.

"Ash!" He heard Delia call him and perked up, he knew she would have found him eventually but he was hoping to have more time to practice, he had wanted to surprise her!

But when she came into view he sighed and decided he would have to try another day. Running off now would just be mean.

"Just where have you been?" Delia demanded when she arrived at the clearing, bending over so she could give him a proper inspection. "And why are you all wet!?"

Ash said nothing and just pouted at her, trying to look as innocent and adorable as possible. She was less likely to scold him if he did that.

Delia sighed. "Well, it's not like you can tell me anyway, come on let's go to Professor Oak's lab."

Ash was silently annoyed, not about the fact that they were going to the Professor's lab, he liked that place, it gave him plenty of new ideas about what kind of Pokémon he could attempt transform into. He was even getting better at making sure his normal tail didn't appear on whatever he made himself look like! No, what annoyed him was the comment about not being able to tell her things. He wanted to talk to her, it wasn't his fault she couldn't understand him!

The lab hadn't really changed since the last time he had been there, of course it never really changed much, apart from maybe a few desks or tables moved around and various stacks of papers and books in different spots. But it was familiar enough for him to navigate around it without help anymore. Back when he was younger he had managed to get himself lost among the machines and had panicked quite a bit. Fortunately Delia and the Professor had found him after a short while.

The humans had left him alone in the main room of the lab, giving him a chance to keep on practicing where no one would be around to spy on him. Ash decided to ignore the fact that the use of the word "spying" was a bit of a stretch given the fact that the only reason he was trying to hide it was so he could surprise his trainer and maybe to use it as a disguise and trick a few people as a joke.

When the humans had left the room Ash hopped over to the middle of the room. Replicating the attempt he made at the lake he stuck his arms out as soon as he could and used them to make sure he didn't topple over again.

It was a bit shaky for a few seconds but he managed to find equilibrium and not fall over, frontwards or backwards. Ash's grin once again returned, this time one of victory! Slowly he started moving his arms down, trying not to upset his delicate balance.

" _Great, another human!"_ Someone commented.

Ash, startled fell over once again and his illusion collapsed leaving him in his normal shape. Darn it all, and he was so close this time! He scrambled to his feet and glared around to give whoever it was that had surprised him a piece of his mind.

" _Okay, what's the big idea!?"_ Ash demanded locating the target of his aggression. It was another Pokémon, a yellow one with a few black markings and red cheeks. It was smaller than he was and had a head clearly too big for its body.

" _Wait a second, I thought you were a human!"_ The yellow Pokémon pointed at him in confusion.

" _Well maybe if I had a bit more practice you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."_ Ash responded in a tone that clearly said who he blamed for not having more practice.

" _Well maybe if you weren't making yourself look like a stupid human, you wouldn't need practice."_ The smaller Pokémon said, hopping down from the ledge it was standing on and coming up to Ash. Small sparks of electricity lit its cheeks up and it pressed its head against Ash's attempting to intimidate him.

" _Well maybe you should mind your own business!"_ Ash shouted back, pushing harder against the other Pokémon.

" _Well maybe I will!"_ The electric type responded but didn't appear to be backing off any time soon.

Ash, not particularly wanting to get into a battle in the middle of the lab because he wanted to be able to come back and didn't want to make Delia look bad, came up with another idea. Snickering he jumped back from the yellow Pokémon applying an illusion as he did so. When he landed, he appeared to be an exact replica of the other Pokémon, save for the sly grin that split his face.

" _H-how are you doing that?!"_ The electric Pokémon demanded. _"Cut it out!"_

" _Maybe if you weren't such a jerk_." Ash teased snickering again. Hah! That what he gets for ruining his training!

" _Why you!"_ The other Pokémon leapt at him knocking them both over and causing Ash to lose concentration on his illusion forcing him out of his new appearance yet again. Oh this guy was so going to get it!

When Delia and Professor Oak finally returned to the room they found two small Pokémon rolling around biting and scratching at each other and that most of the room was kind of a mess at this point.

"Well I see Ash has met Pichu!" The professor laughed awkwardly.

* * *

 **And that's where I'm cutting it off for now.**

 **To be honest this was my effort to get the idea that's been rolling around in my head, out of it and let me focus on some other things because this was the only thing I could think of any time I brought up a document to start writing something. And I figured, what do I have to lose? Maybe people might actually like this!**

 **But yeah, this was my first attempt at a Pokémon fanfiction, but not my first fanfiction whatsoever. So I'm not new to the site, just new to the category. Hopefully it turned out okay, because I'm a bit biased here.**

 **Anyway, the idea behind it is simple, Ash is a Pokémon and he goes on his journey, makes new friends ect. It would certainly explain why he never ages! (Although apparently in recent anime episodes Brock and Misty have returned and they're the** _ **same age**_ **too, I haven't been watching like I used to)**

 **I'm not sure if this is going to be continued or not, I have plenty of other stories that demand my focus and I actually have no plan for this one. Basically, if you want to see more of it, let me know and I'll see what I can do!**

 **Well next week I should be able to update one of my other stories that haven't been updated in awhile. Maybe MT or SS, possibly GG.**

 **Until next we meet! See ya!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	2. Chapter 2

**What do you know!? I'm actually continuing this story!**

 **To be honest I wasn't sure if I would, I mainly wrote the first chapter to get the idea written down before I either lost interest in it, or I forgot about it.**

 **Never fear though! Because now I'm back with a burning desire to continue this story! Also to figure out which way I want to take it! But that's basically all my stories.**

 **I'll have a longer note at the bottom where I'll bring up a few important things but until then, enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

 _Pallet Town, Professor Oak's Lab…_

It didn't take Delia and the Professor to long to pull apart the two Pokémon. The two had been so focused on each other they hadn't even noticed the humans entering the room. They did, however, notice when they each felt themselves being picked up gently, but firmly.

Ash, upon realizing who it was holding him, stopped struggling and calmed down and took the brief time before any scolding could begin to look around the lab and wince. He really had made quite bit of a mess here while fighting that annoying little electric type. But he was justified! The little yellow mouse had started it! He was only defending himself and had in no way enjoyed having the opportunity to get back at the other Pokémon!

Okay, maybe he had enjoyed it just a little.

Of course, the tussle had hardly been a proper battle, he hadn't used any proper moves and neither had the other guy. Really, the best name for what they had been doing was wrestling, which had apparently been more than enough to mess up the lab. If he could he would've apologized to the professor but the point was mostly moot considering said human would not be able to understand him if he did.

Actually, the professor seemed to be too preoccupied to really notice even if he could understand what Ash said to him. He was far too busy attempting to calm the rather outraged electric type in his hands. The little guy would have been ferocious if he were… well… large enough to pose a threat.

"Now calm down Pichu, I'm sure we can work out whatever your problems with Ash are, right?" The professor chuckled good naturedly in what was surely an attempt to hide the concern at how the Pokémon he was holding was acting.

Pichu, as Ash now knew he was called, was clearly unhappy with the current predicament. _"Let go of me human or I'll blast you with all my might!"_

" _Blast?"_ Ash muttered wondering what the smaller Pokémon could possibly do that could qualify as a "blast."

"Professor Oak, do you need any help with Pichu?" Delia offered and Ash barely resisted growling at the idea of that rodent anywhere near his trainer! That was not allowed to happen and he would make sure it didn't happen! Fortunately, before he could do more than briefly growl and start to wiggle himself out of Delia's grip and into a better leaping position, Professor Oak spoke up.

"There's no need for that, I have him perfectly under control." Oak announced as he managed to get a firm grip on Pichu's torso, keeping him from wiggling around or escaping and running off to cause more problems. Unfortunately for the professor, that put him in perfect range of what Pichu was planning to do.

Out of the other three occupants of the room, it was Ash who got the most warning, and that warning consisted of the only other Pokémon present muttering, _"Alright, take this then!"_

The only warning the Professor and Delia had was the small Pokémon clenching his small paws and growling "Pi-chu!"

The rodent-like Pokémon's body was surrounded in a yellow electric glow that momentarily acted as the primary light source in the lab, seemingly darkening everything else. It was difficult for the labs occupants to notice this though. Mainly because the electric type attack had quickly targeted made contact with the targets of his ire.

Eyes bulged and limbs splayed as the uncomfortable efforts of the electric attack coursed through the two humans and one Zorua's bodies. After the pain had passed all three of them collapsed, lightly seared but overall very much alive.

Pichi stood triumphantly atop his victims for a moment looking very pleased with himself. It barely lasted a moment however as he start tottering dangerously before collapsing unconscious.

Oak managed to recover first despite his age, this was hardly the first time that Pichu had unleashed an electric blast at him and he was starting to become used to it, he had already made the joke that he was just getting his batteries recharged a bit and made a few lab assistants chuckle awkwardly.

"Sorry about that Delia." Oak said and helped her to her feet. Ash was no longer in her arms and was instead watching Pichu and making sure he didn't get back up and shock them. "Pichu's not exactly the biggest fan of humans for some reason."

"I'm okay professor, I've been shocked by electric types before." Delia waved off his concern. "Now Ash, what did I tell you about behaving." The Zorua stiffened, he had been hoping that Pichu's attack would have kept the attention off of him, unfortunately that did not seem to be the case.

In a last ditch effort to avoid retribution he transformed into a Pichu again and collapsed on the ground next to the original! They would never know which one was the original now!

Delia stared for a moment at her Pokémon before sighing and crouching down. "Oh what am I going to do with you?" She asked rhetorically before lightly flicking him in the forehead, forcing him to drop his illusion and appear his regular form again. Ash had the decency to look sheepish at his failed (and poorly thought out) plan.

"Come on, at least help us clean up the mess you two made?"

* * *

 _Ash POV, One Hour Later…_

The mess had been cleaned up without too much effort, most of the time had been spent trying to resist attacking that annoying little electric rodent again. Or in the case of Delia and Professor Oak, keeping them from fighting each other.

It was so hard not to try starting anything with that annoying Pichu, not only did he refuse to help once he woke back up but he also kept making fun of Ash for helping to clean up and saying a bunch of rude things about him listening to humans all the while.

Honestly he didn't get what the big deal was, Delia had raised him and while he did go off and do his own thing occasionally he generally listened to her. Not to mention she was his trainer it was kind of her job to make sure he learned right from wrong and took responsibility for what he did.

They had done a bit of battle training too, but since Delia didn't travel much anymore so most of it was really just a form of exercise for him rather than preparations for an actual battle against other trainers or gym leaders or something. Although the idea of going around on an adventure of his own did sound pretty cool, maybe once he got his human illusion perfected he could look into it more.

But for the time being he was sitting in the now clean lab on Delia's lap, occasionally shooting dirty looks at the electric type who thought himself too good to sit with everybody else and had perched himself at the top of a nearby shelf.

So distracted by his deeply despised foe that he ended up missing most of the conversation between Delia and Professor Oak. Fortunately for him it seemed like thus far they had been discussing more mundane things rather than anything too interesting, at least in his opinion anyway. Most of it sounded like boring human stuff anyway like something called taxes, those sounded horrible.

Ash began to lose focus on the conversation again and simply laid down and decided to rest, he was a bit tired out at this point after that whole struggle with the Pichu and then cleaning up the mess afterwards.

However, the conversation soon turned to a topic that regained his interests. That topic being the very same Pichu that Ash hoped he wouldn't have to see again after he left the lab today, maybe some poor trainer will end up taking him. It seemed a bit unlikely but Ash could rest easy with that image in his head.

Despite his own personal thoughts on how the menace should be dealt with, he allowed himself to listen into the conversation between the two humans.

"Where did Pichu come from anyway? I don't remember ever hearing about a Pichu's being in the Kanto region." Delia asked conversationally.

"Well considering there are wild Pikachu living here, I'm sure there are a few Pichu out in the wild." Professor Oak explained. "They probably are just good at keeping themselves hidden from prying eyes. That or the older Pikachu do everything in there power to keep them hidden, they are the youngest after all. It would make sense for the older one to want to help keep them safe"

"Well you have a good point, but where did you get this one then?" Delia asked glancing over at Pichu where the electric type seemed to be ignoring the rest of the room. Ash followed her look and glared for a moment but it was clear Pichu wasn't even paying attention to them at this point.

"Pichu was sent to me by a colleague of mine from Johto, Professor Elm, apparently he found him chewing on his electrical wires in between the walls." The professor laughed heartily and Ash failed to contain his own snicker. Hah! What kind of dummy got himself caught while chewing on electrical wires? "But since Professor Elm was having so much trouble with him, he sent him over to me to see if I would have better look." Oak's laugh turned a bit awkward now and both Delia and Ash picked up on it.

"You haven't been having much success with him have you?" Delia asked somewhat dryly, shooting the professor a knowing look. Ash tried his best to replicate it so as to help her get the point across.

"Unfortunately... No." Professor Oak coughed into his hand and tried not to meet Delia's gaze. "He's got a difficult personality to deal with and acts out most of the time, this isn't the first time I've found a mess he created, albeit with a bit of help this time." Ash resisted doing anything to bring more attention to himself.

Professor Oak continued on unhindered, "To be honest, I was actually hoping being around another Pokémon like Ash there might help him calm down a bit, most of the ones I have at the lab are a bit too mature to make the kind of connection that Pichu needs right now." The professor sighed. "To tell you the truth, I'm nearing my wits end."

The conversation lapsed into silence for a few moments and Ash knew that Delia was thinking and for some reason he had the feeling that he wasn't going to like whatever her idea was.

"Well we could try to help out with Pichu!" She suggested and Ash turned and stared at her aghast. She noticed his look and directed her next words at him. "Oh don't give me that look, you're the one who messed up the lab and both of you clearly need to learn to get along." Ash pouted, it wasn't his fault, that annoying Pichu had been the one who started it.

Ash quickly glanced at Pichu, he still didn't seem to be paying attention to them but his ears were twitching a bit so maybe he was listening in on their conversation, it was hard to tell and Ash didn't feel like going over to ask him.

"What is it you're suggesting?" Professor Oak asked looking interested in whatever Delia was offering.

Delia smiled, not her usual one but one that Ash hadn't seen before, one that he might even call dangerous. "Well Pichu clearly has a lot of pent up energy and I've given Ash battle training, but I haven't been able to give him too much actual experience."

"So what do you Professor?" Delia asked, "Let's have a Pokemon battle!"

* * *

 **And that's the end of this chapter! I probably could have made it a bit longer but I've had a lot going on and haven't been able to completely put my focus into this so hopefully when we get to the next chapter it will be able to contain my focus better.**

 **It will be a battle after all and perhaps the start of a legendary friendship!**

 **Sorry for lack of update last week and yesterday, I was busy with school stuff, especially considering I'm graduating this year so focus is required to make sure I look good to colleges.**

 **Anyway, I have a couple of questions I would like opinions on.**

 **Firstly, and most importantly, how should Ash communicate once he gets his human illusion down. I have a few ideas about how he could speak to people, they are:**

 **Telepathy (like in the movies)**

 **Learn to Talk (Meowth could do it, why not him?)**

 **Aura (like Lucario or something)**

 **Or he could just learn sign language or pretend to be mute but I feel like those will get old quick in the long run.**

 **Second question, Pichu/Pikachu getting a nickname, yay or nay? I was just going to reference the Electric Tale of Pikachu and call him Jean-Luc Pikachu but if nobody wants that then we'll just leave him with his name.**

 **Anyway, reviews!**

 **Rickymon Gaming: Thanks!**

 **Guest: Glad to hear it, hopefully I can meet your expectations.**

 **Ultima-owner: I did it more for humor and plot related purposes but if it's cute, it's cute.**

 **Jakeroo123: He hasn't been raised (much) by Professor Oak and I hopefully have a believable reason for his problem with humans that will come up in the next few chapters. And thank you for your opinion on the nickname I have taken it into consideration as you are not the only one with this concern.**

 **Battlesny: Yeah but Team Rocket are kinda idiots so the obvious idea hasn't occurred to them, or Meowth specifically.**

 **Loki921: Happy to hear you like it and I have continued it indeed!**

 **That's all for now folks, see you either next time I update this story or in one of my other works!**

 **See ya!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


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